Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Inside Housing calls for the next government to "Build Social"

 



Many will support the new campaign by magazine/social media site "Inside Housing" for the next Government to build more social housing. As a London Councillor and front facing Housing worker, I see pretty much every week the devastation that the inadequate supply of affordable housing causes to so many vulnerable families.

"The reasons for urgent action to deliver better outcomes for people in need of stable housing are painfully obvious. To quote just a few: right now there are more than 100,000 households living in temporary accommodation in England including 131,370 children, 14,000 households, including 9,130 children in Scotland, 4,465 households or 13,000 people in Wales and almost 4,000 households in Northern Ireland. These figures have been rising steadily and represent a blight on the lives of children, individuals and families across the UK. They are unacceptable and need to change".

They are calling for around 100,000 social housing homes per year to be built across the UK. Their call and their evidence is spot on. 

While it is a non political campaign, the truth of the matter is that to deliver this we need to elect a government which is willing to provide the subsidy needed to provide truly affordable social housing. 

While there are massive governance and accountability issues also to address. In my view it is only the election of a Labour Government with a working majority that can deliver anywhere near this aim (or possibly exceed).

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